Preserving Apple Pie Filling for Winter

By Theresa Loe on October 13, 2010

Imagine a cold winter day.

You have a warm crackling fire in the fireplace as you gaze out the window at your forlorn apple trees standing tall in the blustery weather. You think about how only a few short months ago, those trees produced the most delicious apples.

Boy, wouldn’t it be great to have a warm apple pie made with those same apples right about now?

Yes, you can have locally-grown, homemade apple pie in the middle of winter.

Well, guess what?

You can have that locally-grown apple pie in winter!

All you need to do is “put up” some apple pie filling in a jar right now during apple season and then later in the middle of winter, you can pop that filling into a pie crust and enjoy fresh, local apples while snow is falling outside. Oh baby!

And if you don’t grow your own apples, now is the time to hit your local farmer’s markets for the best apples of the year. By canning pie filling, you are capturing that flavor in a jar!

Better yet, impress your friends by giving them a jar of pie filling for the holidays. They won’t stop talking about if for weeks. Trust me!

You Can Make Adjustments:

For pie filling, you can use any baking apple you wish. Just make sure they are firm and crisp. I like to use Golden Delicious, Granny Smith or Jonathan.

Based on the apples you choose, you can adjust the sugar and spices to your personal preferences.

That’s right! You can adjust the sugar and spices in this recipe! That is because in this recipe, they are only there for flavor.

However, do NOT adjust or omit the lemon juice. It is there for color preservation and acidity safety. Bottled lemon juice is called out because it has a consistent acidity level. If the acidity level is not right, the bad bacteria can grow. So, be safe. Don’t leave out the lemon juice!

Special Ingredients are optional:

The recipe below calls for a special ingredient called Clear Jel, that can really take this pie filling to the next level.

Clear Jel (not to be confused with Sure Gel) is a powdered modified food starch that is used in canning as a thickener. It can be difficult to find sometimes, but well worth the effort of tracking it down. (I order mine from KitchenKrafts).

Canners use Clear Jel instead of traditional thickeners like cornstarch, tapioca or arrowroot because during the canning process, those traditional thickeners either gum up or break down. Using traditional thickeners before proccessing, will result in a runny pie at baking time. So Clear Jel is used instead.

You can best preserve the color of the sliced apples with ascorbic acid.

However, if you can’t find Clear Jel, you can still make this recipe. Just don’t use any thickener at all!

Then, when you actually made the pie from the jar, add your traditional thickener at that time. You may get some lumps, but it is better than a runny pie.

Another special ingredient I use is something called ascorbic acid. It is actually powdered vitamin C and is used to prevent browning or discoloration of the apples.

Yes you can just use lemon juice and it will work. But ascorbic acid has been proven to work much better. It is a very common ingredient in canning and should be easy to find at the supermarket in the canning section or wherever canning supplies are sold. Just know that if you can’t find it, you can go without it.

If using ascorbic acid, follow the manufacturer’s instructions. This usually means dissolving about 1 teaspoon of powder per gallon of water and soaking the fruit for a few minutes before processing.

Make a Sample Jar:

I highly recommend that you make one sample jar of pie filling first to verify your spices and sugar before making a huge batch.

Each apple variety has a different sweetness level. You don’t want to go to all the trouble of canning only to discover that the finished batch has too much or too little sugar. The sugar called out in this recipe is what I use for sweet apples. If you are using very tart apples you may need more sugar.

But keep in mind that you can always add more sugar and spices just before baking, but you can’t take out. So, adjust carefully.

Use quart size jars for this recipe. Each quart will make one 8-9 inch pie. The ingredients below are for a 1 quart sample jar or a full batch of 7 quarts

Directions:

1) Wash, peel and core the apples. Then slice them and measure for your recipe.

2) Mix ascorbic acid with water according to manufacturer’s instructions and soak sliced apples while you bring a stockpot of water to a boil.

3) Blanch the apple slices, in small batches, in the boil water for one minute. (This kills the enzyme that causes soft apples in the jar.)

4) Drain and set aside.

5) In a large stockpot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, spices, water and apple juice. Heat and stir until mixture begins to thicken and bubble.

6) Continue to stir and add lemon juice. Boil 1 minute.

7) Fold in drained apple slices and stir to heat through.

8) Turn off heat, and immediately fill hot canning jars with mixture, leaving a 1-inch headspace. Run a plastic knife or rubber spatula around the inside edges of jar to remove any air bubbles. Add more if necessary to maintain the 1-inch headspace.

9) Use a damp paper towel to wipe off rims of the jars. Add hot lids and rings and tighten to just finger tight.

10) Process immediately in a water bath for 25 minutes if you are below 1000 ft altitude. Process 30 minutes for 1,001-3,000 ft. Process 35 minutes for 3,001-6,000 ft. (For more information on water bath canning see Water Bath Basics 101)

Each quart jar will make one 8-9 inch pie. You can also use the pie filling as dessert topping or in pastries.

Theresa Loe is the Co-Executive Producer and the canning/homesteading expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She creates seasonally inspired pantry items based on homegrown and locally-sourced produce. A lifelong canner and a graduate of the Master Food Preserver Program, Theresa also studied sustainable horticulture and culinary arts. She also blogs at LivingHomegrown about homesteading & preserving. Follow her on Google+ and download her FREE CANNING RESOURCE GUIDE.

Comments

Love this website! I want to try the Apple Pie Filling recipe but I have one question that I have not seen addressed. I have an apple peeler/slicer/corer that I would love to use to save time but it does slice the apples thinner than I normally would do by hand. Would the thinner slices can well or would they tend to become mushy?

I am thrilled that I found your website today. You are a wealth of information which is just what I need. I am a relatively new canner. I have canned but for some reason it just does not turn out right. Here is my question, please help me. I made apple pie filling this week. Filled 9 quart jars with a 1″ headspace. Canned for 20 minutes. When they were cooling all but 3 jars leaked so to be safe I opened every one and froze the filling. I precooked my filling using regular clear jel and not the instant type. I made sure there were no air bubbles and I cleaned the rims with a 50% solution of water and vinegar. I just don’t understand why these things happen all the time. I am doing something wrong but can’t figure out what it is. I have another question please. I watched your pickled garlic video and need to know if I use the same time to can my recipe for candied garlic cloves. This stuff is like candy and can sit and eat the entire jar at once but my recipe just says to can with a 1/4″ headspace and nothing on timing so I just fridge it for the 2 week curing period. Can you help out with this? Thank you so much for this wonderful informative web site where I will be visiting constantly.

It sounds like you did everything right. That sometimes happens. Let me give you some info to help in the future…

Leaking jars: What is happening to your jars is called siphoning. It happens when the temperature change occurs quickly while forming the vacuum seal. A small amount of leakage is okay but as you suspected, it can compromise the seal (gunk gets under the lid) and over time, you can lose your vacuum seal while it sits in the cupboard. So it is something you want to avoid if possible. However, if you have a few jars leak it is okay to remove the rings and wipe them off. Leave the rings off so that you can watch the seal. You are supposed to do this anyway and here is post explaining that: http://livinghomegrown.com/2014/02/why-remove-rings-from-canning-jars.html Use any jars that leaked a bit first.

But to avoid it in the future, here is a little trick:

When your jars are in the canner and the time is up on processing, turn off the heat and take off the lid to your canner — But do NOT take the jars out right away. Let them sit in the hot water for about 5 minutes so that they start to come down in temperature slowly. Then, remove them to a towel or wooden board to cool completely. Many times, this helps prevent the siphoning in the first place.

In looking for the Clear Jel there appears to be regular and instant. Which version does this recipe need? Also, is there a brand you have found works best for you (several online options are a bit daunting)? Many thanks for your guidance!

Excellent question Chelle – I am going to have to write a post on this.

You want regular clear jel for your home canning. It is made to take the heat of water bath processing without breaking down. Although I have not tried instant, I have read numerous times that it does not hold up as well. So go with the regular clear jel.

And no, I don’t have a favorite brand. They have all worked well for me as long as they are not instant. I don’t think you can go wrong with any brand.

I just wrote a more detailed answer to Samantha’s question. But in her case, she had used a different recipe.

Just as in any apple pie recipe, sometimes the apples have more juice and it can make the mix more runny. The mixture should have thickened a bit when you processed it and it also gets a bit thicker when you bake it into the pie. But if yours is very, very runny – you may not have done anything wrong. The apples were probably just good and juicy. (Which is not a bad thing.)

Don’t worry. You can just add more thickener when you actually bake the pie. If you are giving these away as gifts, simply write into the instructions that before making the pie, they should pour it into a bowl and mix in either 2 Tbsp. flour OR 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (not both). Then they can pour it into the crust and bake normally. It should be fine. If you have an extra quart, try one yourself first to see if that is enough thickener to get the consistency you like.

Great post, I found a lot of this to be helpful. This fall my mom and I put up a couple dozen quarts of apple pie filling and I wish I would have seen this post first and had the idea to do a sample jar – very clever.

We followed the recipe for apple pie filling found in the Ball Blue Book which is almost identical to the one you have here; however, my filling never got thick. I’m very confused where I went wrong in the recipe and am wondering if you have any ideas. We used the clear jel and lemon juice just as specified. Should the liquid be thick before canning or was it supposed to thicken as the jars sat? Most importantly, I am wondering, will the apple pie filling still make suitable gifts if it isrunny and should I suggest that those I give it to thicken it when baking with it?

The recipe does thicken a bit before going into the jars but it thickens up even more when baked. If it is close to the thick consistency, you should be fine. But if it is really, really runny it probably won’t. But read on…

Were you using the older Blue Ball Book recipe that calls for flour? If it is, I suspect that is your culprit. Flour does not hold up well in the apple pie filling when waterbath processed and cause lumps or separation.

However, if you are using a newer recipe that only has clear jel then I would suspect that maybe the clear gel was not working properly or something else was wrong that we may never figure out. (And that does happen sometimes just like with any recipe.)

But fear not! Your pie filling can be saved! It won’t hurt a bit to add more thickener when baking. So, when giving it away, simply write into the instructions that before making the pie, they should pour it into a bowl and mix in either 2 Tbsp. flour OR 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (not both). Then they can pour it into the crust and bake normally. It should be fine. If you have an extra quart, try one yourself first to see if that is enough thickener to get the consistency you like. Some apples are juicier than others. But you can always add a little more thickener before baking.

Yes you can – BUT…Don’t add either of those until you are baking the pie. Sometimes other sweeteners can cause weird textural issues or clumping when canned. Your best bet is to make up the filling and can it with NO sweetener. Then add your splenda or stevia when you go to bake the pie. Also, if you use sweet apples, you may not need any sweetener at all!

Theresa can I combine my sugar, spices, and apples all together, stir them up real good and pre -cook them on medium high heat till hot and then put them into jars and then the canner? I would prefer to do this instead of blanching. I think with this method I could get more apples in the jar. I will be leaving the thickening out till I am ready to use the pie filling. Should I stir the lemon juice in after getting the apples hot? Do I need to add water before cooking my apples I know apples make a lot of juice if so how much for seven quarts?

The purpose of the blanching is not to heat the apples for going in the jar. Blanching kills the enzymes on the apples that make them turn soft and mushy in the jar. It also helps with color retention. So although you can mix everything up as you are asking and heat it through, you will probably not have as nice of a product in the end. However, it would not affect safety.

Yes you can add the lemon juice after you get the apples hot.

If you want to still cook the apples as you describe, you are going to be presented with a few problems. As you said, the apples will get soft and release juice. So your water/juice to add will be off. You still need the proper liquid level because that keeps the apples covered and helps preserve them in the jar. I guess I would add the water when I cook the apples.

But here is my concern…I think you are going to end up with apple sauce instead of apple pie. When you cook the apples as you describe, you will begin to break them down and they will soften. Then you put them in the jar and you have not blanched them, so they will soften further over time. The flavor will still be fine and they will be okay from a safety standpoint. But I do think they will make an applesauce pie rather than the standard apple pie you are looking for.

The question I have is about using apple butter as a thickener. When making fruit crisp instead of adding sugar/spices to the sliced fruit I toss a jar of apple butter in. It has a bit of sugar, lots of spices and is just plain thick. Can this be used as a medium in which to put sliced apples for apple pie filling? Maybe cut the apple juice in the recipe by half and add apple butter at the end and heat to a boil?

Hi! I have a question about pie filling – not apple pie filling but blueberry. I followed the recipe for blueberry pie filling from the usda for use with clear jel. When making the pie filling I forgot to put the lemon juice in – I water bathed them for 35 minutes and they all sealed – during clean up I found the measured cup of lemon juice I had forgotten! I had read that the lemon juice was to make the clear jel actually jel – but it gelled just fine so your statement about the lemon juice made the use of lemon juice make much more sense to me. Is my pie filling okay to use or should it be dumped? I marked it so that I wouldn’t give it away and just keep it for my own use but my sister has a can too since she said she wanted to ‘risk it’.

Actually, another question – when I put the lid on my pot while water bathing the water tends to raise and threaten to boil over so I have been water bath canning with no lid – the boil stays rapid and steady with the water level 1-2 inches above at start of boil – is this okay? Also does the temperature of the water matter as long as it is a good rapid boil? I can’t can on my stove so I bought a outdoor propane burner and it gets VERY hot but is really nice because it heats the water so fast and keeps the boil so strong. Thank you so much for any advice! Samantha

Okay – First, the lemon juice serves several purposes but most importantly it is for stability of the storage and it helps with safety. Having the lemon juice in there keeps the colors vibrant, the fruit firm and the clear jel “gelled”. Lemon juice also helps with the pH which helps with safety. But blueberries are naturally in the “safe zone” as far as pH is concerned – so I think you are safe there. I think your biggest concern with the lack of lemon juice is that your product will not hold up quite as long as a batch WITH lemon juice. My advice: eat the ones without lemon juice first. I do not think you will poison anyone. But I do worry that they will fade quickly in color and not look as delicious if they start to brown or discolor.

It is always best to boil with the lid on. It keeps the product just a tad hotter that way during processing. It sounds like you might have too strong of a boil going. It needs to be a gentle boil – not a fire N’ brimstone type boil. If the problem is just that your pot is too short, I advise you to get a taller pot or use smaller jars if you can. I’m sure what you have done so far is fine because you are being careful to keep a really strong boil when you had the lid off. But if you can get a taller pot, it would be easier to control.

I am new to canning, but my normal apple pie recipe consists of 1 cup sugar, 2 tbs flour and 3/4 tsp of cinnamon. I would like to leave it as close as possible to that. Can I do that and just add the lemon juice and do the apples have to be blanched? Thanks so much!

First, leave out the flour. It will get all clumpy and distasteful when processed. If you do not have Clear Jel, it is better to leave out the thickener all together and add it back in when you actually use the filling and make the pie later. So make a note on your jar that when you use it, you still have to add in your 2 Tbsp of flour at that time.

I also recommend that you include the apple juice so that you have liquid in the mix. It helps preserve the color, texture and flavor of the apples.

As for the blanching, yes – You will will have the best results if you blanch. The blanching process kills the enzymes that cause the fruit to go dark and soft. If you skip it, I fear you may end up with very soft fruit at best and applesauce at worse.

The spices are where you have free range. Feel free to change those however you wish.

This is such a great recipe that my sister is now planning to can some of her own next fall for winter! It’s so nice t be able to make fresh apple pie or turnovers whenever I want, without going to a lot of trouble!

Hi! SO happy I found your website. I was wondering, I make pie all the time, so all I need to do is put the filling in a raw pie crust and I can either do a regular top crust or a crumb topping and I would work? Thank you!

I just made my first batch of apple pie filling – it is int he water bath as I write this. I am looking forward to using the filling later this month. Thanks so much for such clear instructions and letting us know how easy this is to do!

Theresa, just used a recipe identical to yours, but I think next batch we will only blanch for about 30 seconds. 1 minute made the apples kind of mushy. Also, unless you are the owner or have a stake in where you buy your clear jel, you should look at myspicesage.com. Even in the middle of the big storm “Sandy” we recieved our shipment in 3 days, and with free goodies that are really not cheap and free shipping. The site you recommended was $8+ to ship and was going to take 2 weeks. If you are involved with the company you suggest, I will keep my mouth shut.

And no, I have no stake in the clear jel I first recommended. I wrote this post a few years ago and so things have changed since then. I love that you found a better source! Thanks for the info. I am going to check it out.

Theresa, I looked at various websites for the, “how many apples” question. Cooks.com said 30 large apples will make 7 qts., filling jar 2/3 and then add liquid. That is about 4.3 or 5 for the 1 qt. tester.

Hello, Great website! I am getting ready today to try your Apple Pie Filling recipe. I don’t have the Clear Jel (can’t find it anywhere around here) so I am going to leave the cornstarch out, as you suggested. My question is, how much cornstarch do I add when I make my pie this Winter?

I add about 1-2 teaspoons of cornstarch per pie – depending upon how juicy the mix is when it comes out of the jar. If it is very juicy/runny, use the 2 tsp. If it is fairly dry, then 1 tsp of cornstarch (or even no cornstarch at all). It all depends upon the juiciness of the apples you use. So you have to be the judge. But no matter what…that pie should be delicious!

Hi Theresa, If I am going to add the thickener at the time of baking, how much of the liquid should I put in the jars with the apples? Do I divide evenly between the jars? I just tried a batch and it seems like I came up short…after blanching it was more like 5 quarts of apples. Any tips an tricks you could provide would be great. Thanks! Deanna

Yes, divide the liquid evenly between the jars AFTER you have added the apples up to the 1-inch headspace. If you end up with not enough liquid, you can add a bit of apple juice to “top off” the last jar. But you don’t need the apples to be swimming in liquid. It is just there to thicken when you bake the apple pie.

And yes, you can come up “short” on the apples depending upon how thickly you slice your apples compared to me and how large your apples are to start. So no worries. Just fill the jars up to 1-inch from the top and if you end up with a half-jar or less, do not try to can that partially filled jar. Instead, bake it in a small dish and eat as crustless apple pie. It will be delicious!

That is an excellent question! Yes you can take out the sugar in SOME recipes, but the trick is knowing if the sugar is there for flavor or if it is there for preservation/consistency.

Here is the scoop:

1) Splenda is the only sugar substitute that is recommended by the USDA to use in canning. It can be used in canning regular fruits (peaches, berries, cherries, etc).

2) Unsweetened fruit juices may be used instead of sugar syrups in all fruit canning (whole or sliced fruit). The juice made from the fruit being canned is best. Blends of usweetened apple, pineapple, and white grape juice are also good for filling over solid fruit pieces.

3) When you use Splenda, adjust headspaces and lids normally and use the processing recommendations given for regular fruits.

4) Jams and Jellies: are a bit trickier because the sugar is there to create the consistency and create the gel. If you ever want to make that with Splenda, you can switch to a “low sugar” recipe that is made specifically with “low sugar pectin” (you can find in the grocery store or online). That pectin will gel without the extra sugar and comes with recipes/instructions inside using Splenda as a substitute.

5) If you want to ever use a different sugar substitute other than Splenda, add it upon serving, NOT when canning. Most of the others make the fruit mushy or discolored.

6) For my apple pie filling recipe above, I would completely eliminate the sugar from the recipe. (It is only there for flavor) And add the amount of Splenda you want. In fact, you may find that if the apples are sweet enough on their own, no sweeter is needed!

I’m glad you like my version of the recipe. You are correct, pie filling has many uses. My kids love it when we heat it up a bit and then spoon it over homemade vanilla ice cream. It is like an upside down apple pie a la mode. LOL

Just this morning I was thinking about planting an apple tree, and after reading this I’m convinced I must give it a try! I heard Rosalind Creasy speak the other night, and she was raving about her Pink Pearl Apple tree (she lives near me, so it does well in our mild climate). Thanks Theresa for confirming my decision!

So glad this post pushed you over to the other side of apple growing Rebecca! I love everything that Rosalind recommends so I will have to check out the Pink Pearl Apple myself. I currently grow: Anna, Dorsett Golden, Fuji, Beverly Hills and some crab apples (all espaliered around the perimeter of my city property). If you don’t have much room, espalier is the way to go!

I hope you do get that apple tree. But in the meantime, get some apples at the farmers market and let me know how your pie turns out. You’ll love it.

Now you just have to get your mom’s recipe, add some bottled lemon juice to make it safe and you should “can” it. How flipped out would your mom be if you gave HER a jar of her own pie filling for Christmas? LOL